This week’s Dance First Member Spotlight is brought to you by UK-Based Adam Barley, founder of ZeroOne.
Dear dancers,
I keep wondering what 2020 will look like from the point of view of my deathbed. (Hopefully, that won’t be any time soon… I’m 57, but CV19 won’t do me in, will it… er… )
My chances are good, but there is something weird about this virus. I’ve got friends way down the conspiracy rabbit hole, and I’m not going there. Other friends have had it and were sobered by the experience. I scan the news headlines most days, despite deeply mistrusting the mainstream narrative.
Amidst the deluge of information, the truth is I don’t know what to believe.
I think Fritz Perls coined a new twist in the phrase, “Come to your senses.” Yes. Exactly.
I love my morning practice. I love breathing. I love hugs. These past months have helped me to reorient me to being in the moment. I’m eating more slowly, pausing more often, cycling further on sunny days. I’m loving the changing colors of autumn and the smell of the air at dusk. It’s a treasure to see my granddaughter (even if it’s only on Zoom, which is all we’re allowed because she lives across the Welsh border). I love using my voice, both for speaking and just making sounds.
My partner and I are evolving a whole new range of relating with sound and movement in day to day moments rather than only when we’ve decided to ‘do a practice’ together. This is incredibly useful, especially when we’re feeling passionate on either end of the fiery spectrum. It’s incredible how fast anger can turn to fun and delightful how desire can be a dance.
Non-verbal expression comes first, with cognitive understanding and verbal communication following later.
So yes, I am taking this remarkable period in history to come to my senses. At least on a good day.
A strong toolkit of personal and relational practices, together with the courage and optimism to use them, is like gold-dust right now. That’s the good news, for me and probably for you, too, if you’re reading this. The things I’ve invested in for decades are now the most valuable resources one could have. This is an excellent time to meditate, pray, heal, and grow, and all those things work better when we’re really at home in our bodies. And that is a whole lot easier when we dance more often than my dear parents did.
Adam Barley is the founder of ZeroOne, a movement practice for personal and collective evolution: www.inzero.one
For further insight into what’s going on this year, see this video about collective trauma with Adam.
(Would you like to write an Insight Column for Monday Love and be featured on the Conscious Dancer website? Send us an email today!)
